16 Expedition of 1906 



beams and pieces of iron being found afterwards at a considerable 

 distance among the wreckage of the overthrown trees. 



Even to-day the vegetation of Vlakke Hoek still bears traces 

 of the devastation which occurred 25 years ago. A new forest of 

 coconut palms has sprung up in the neighbourhood of the small 

 settlement. Part of the devastated cultivated land is covered with 

 Imperata arnndinacea, the Alang-Alang grass widely distributed in 

 the Archipelago, which everywhere spreads as a thick carpet over 

 bare patches of forest and neglected fields and slowly retreats before 

 new forest growth. 



The beach of Vlakke Hoek (Tandjong Rata of the natives) is flat 

 and sandy. Towards the east the shore is fringed by a large rect- 

 angular coral reef, on the outer edge of which the waves break into 

 foam. Unfortunately the rising tide interfered with algological in- 

 vestigations which, judging by the interesting finds on the beach, 

 would probably have yielded a rich harvest. 



There is no mangrove vegetation in the neighbourhood of Tandjong 

 Rata. Spinifex and Barringtonia formations alternate with one 

 another. In many places the waves rush over the fine sand to the 

 half-exposed network of roots of the outermost trees of the strand- 

 forest. Where the forest is further from the coast larger and smaller 

 patches are covered with Spinifex squarrosus and Ipomaea Pes- 

 caprae ; shrubs of Hibiscus tiliaceus are met with, also Hernandia 

 peltata, Colubrina asiatica, and Toumefortia argentea with its 

 shimmering grey-green leaves. Below the low trees and shrubs of 

 the Leguminous species Desmodium umbellatum, Pongamia glabra, 

 Sophora tomentosa, one finds the beautiful flowering grass Thuarea 

 sarmentosa ; also other members of the Gramincae, such as Zoysia 

 pnngens and Oplismenus compositus, the Cyperaceous species Fim- 

 bristylis spathacea, some ferns with singly pinnate leaves, Nephrolepis 

 hirsutula and large clumps of Acrostichiwi aureum. The parasite 

 Cassytha flifqrmis occurs on a variety of shrubs and herbaceous 

 plants. Scaevola Koenigii, a Goodeniaceous species with tufts of 

 fleshy light green leaves terminating long branches, grows in 

 abundance, also crowded young plants of Terminalia Gatappa 

 characterised by their formal habit. Groups of Barringtonia 

 speciosa present a strange appearance. Numerous trees lie partly 

 uprooted with the stem on the ground, the crown half-erect. These 

 are veterans overthrown by the seismic wave of 1883 and which have 

 preserved themselves in the midst of the subsequent growth : their 

 thick stems and branches are overgrown by a thick mantle of small 

 epiphytes, lichens, liverworts, and mosses, in contrast to the other 

 strand-plants which are destitute of epiphytic species. Bushes of 



